


You Play Your Part, I Play Mine

by Pluppelina



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M, Sebastian reflects over Jim's different aliases
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-15
Updated: 2013-02-15
Packaged: 2017-11-29 08:57:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/685167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pluppelina/pseuds/Pluppelina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, when Jim comes home in the evening, he isn't himself. Not that Sebastian minds - at least, he doesn't think so.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Play Your Part, I Play Mine

Sometimes, Jim would still be in character as someone else when he came home. He’d be M, the criminal who made the whole underworld shake with fear, or he’d be Plain Jim, Normal Jim, Everyday Jim from IT or the office or the shop on the corner, still buzzing about who should date who on Glee, or he’d be the petty thief James, hiding in the shadows and slipping away at the smallest sign of trouble, or any of the other countless personas he used in much the same way Sebastian used hair dye or a nice suit. 

Sometimes, the aliases lingered for longer, particularly the ones Jim had been using for a time rather than a single set purpose. Sebastian knew some of them so well that he could predict their actions just as well as Jim’s own. If M came home in the evening, he’d more often than not lock himself in his bedroom and spend the rest of the night in illboding silence and Sebastian would know to stay out of his way. On the other hand, if Everyday Jim came home, he’d cuddle up with Sebastian on the sofa. Sometimes he’d even fall asleep there, drooling on Sebastian’s shoulder. Sleep seemed to be one of the few things that guaranteed a reset of Jim’s personality. Even if he slipped back into the same one, or another one, there was always that little moment just after he’d woken up when he’d be completely blank, blinking up at Sebastian with confused eyes.

Perhaps just because Sebastian knew all sides of Jim’s play acting, it wasn’t unnerving for him to wake up to one man in the morning, kiss a second good bye as he left and come back home to a third. He never knew whether Jim did it on purpose or not; the great difference in time intervals suggested yes, but it was Jim, after all, and Sebastian had learned to expect anything. Even though the idea that perhaps it wasn’t something Jim could control was absurd because Sebastian had a hard time imagining Jim powerless in the face of anything, it wasn’t without credibility - Sebastian might not be a genius, but he’d never closed his eyes on reality, and the reality was that he only knew what Jim wanted him to know. That’s always suited him fine before, and he doesn’t think this issue any different. 

Sebastian might be a consistent man in his views, but he’s learned to be adaptable - is forced to be, or he would never have managed with Jim for as long as he has - and he’s found that it suits him fine to have a whole assortment of men at his disposal. Even if he doesn’t get to choose who to see when, it’s nice to have the combination of sweetheart Jim, making him dinner in the evenings and pouring just the right amount of milk into his coffee, and cruel Jim, making him kneel and swallow with a snap of his fingers. That isn’t the unnerving part.

The unnerving part is the thought that maybe, just maybe, Jim has another character, another facade that Sebastian spends time with; Just Jim. Just Jim, who likes his showers hot and his tea hotter, who can sometimes forgo food for days if his work seems to take priority, who tells Sebastian what a good boy he is for doing that job or performing that task. What makes Sebastian so frightened when it comes to Jim is the thought that maybe he’s always pretending, maybe he’s always putting on a show of some sort, and that deep down underneath all of the layered aliases, behind his dark eyes, there’s simply a cold, dead nothing.


End file.
